Description

Take a Bow calls on world leaders to take responsibility for their actions. Muse move through three musical stages: starting off as a classical piece before moving into a techno mid-section and a heavy "apocalyptic rock" ending. Initially described "a looping epic which morphs into a gothic fairytale".[2]

Matt said that: "The first song "Take A Bow", is about the feeling of the little man who lost control of anything and now wants to take revenge on authority". [3] "You can hear the people who are at the bottom of the pyramid, who haven’t got any power, and they have this feeling of powerlessness, a feel I have quite often, about some of these events – this sense of, “What can I do about this?” It seems like no one is listening. A million people protest, and nothing really happens[4]

Additional information

Initially called "Hex", "Take a Bow" was originally going to be at the end of the album.[5] Two months later, Chris indicated it could become the opening track.[6] Put first on the album because it ends in the key of B which is the key of the second track. .

Wolstenholme: We wrote it at the end of the Absolution sessions, and it sounds similar [to Absolution tracks]. It has evolved a lot since then, but it’s principle remains the same: a change of periodic agreements which are at the brink of exploding. Its structure is mathematical, the main idea being a formula with neither chorus nor verse. Dom’s never played like that, with very jazzy rhythms, slow ones, followed by more chaotic bits integrated into the whole.[6]

Based on this account, we can assume the song was written sometime around 2003. It was was often played as a piano interlude between Citizen Erased and Space Dementia on the Absolution tour throughout 2003 and 2004, as well as an intro to Feeling Good on The Resistance Tour. Take a Bow, as well as Soldier's Poem, are the earliest Black Holes and Revelations songs to be written from what is known about today.

Composition

Take a Bow is written in 3/4 time and moves at a tempo of 130 bpm. Bellamy's vocal range in the song spans from C3 to G4 in the modal register, and up to F♯5 in falsetto; one of the wider vocal ranges in a Muse song.

The chord structure moves in fourths upwards, by using the augmented fifth in between to move.[7]

The key of the song changes a total of 13 times, each time moving to the nearest key in the circle of fifths. It begins in D major before following the circle counter-clockwise to E♭. After the lyric "Our freedom's consuming itself," the song goes clockwise back to F. After the techno mid-section, the song again begins moving counter-clockwise around the circle, changing key 6 times before finishing in B.

Live

Take a Bow was played at many of the gigs during the Black Holes and Revelations tour, leading to a high number of performances. Unlike other non-single songs from the album, Take a Bow was played consistently often during 2006, 2007 and 2008 and skipped only at a few gigs. During The Resistance tour, the song was brought back in 2010 with a few scattered performances during the European tour and rare appearances in October and December. After only three performances in 2011, the song makes no appearances during The 2nd Law era. Still, the song was performed more often than any non-single song off of Black Holes and Revelations, and even more often than Invincible.